True Love Tutor

Chelsea stood in the school hallway with the members of the Lonely Lovers Club. Ginko knit his eyebrows while Sandra stood with her mouth wide open.

“You mean you actually went and talked to him with children's floaties on?” asked Sandra. “Geez Willie your plans are always disasters, aren’t they?”

“Well excuse me,” Willie said. “Maybe if someone didn’t run off it wouldn’t have been a problem.”

“Oh there’s no way I could have fixed this problem,” said Sandra.

“Okay kids,” said Maria, as calming as she could. “What’s done is done. We have to think of next steps for Chelsea.”

Sandra and Willie stepped back from each other. Willie straightened up and recalled the reason they were here. “Yes,” he said. “Although not exactly as planned, it was still a success.”

Sandra whispered, “not really.”

Willie continued as though he heard nothing, “Chelsea was able to start up a conversation with Brad. Now we need some way to propel this to the next level. They need to hang out together.”

“It sounds to me,” said Sandra, “like we still need to work on the first part. One conversation is hardly enough to start a relationship.”

“I have to agree,” said Ginko. “It seems like hanging out is still a little ways away.”

Chelsea looked down at her feet. Willie had seen her do it a few times. A shy girl like herself would always have trouble getting out there. It takes a lot of confidence to confront your crush head on. Willie was glad she had come to the Lonely Lovers. He was proud to help her make her true love dreams become reality.

“Keep your chin up, Chelsea,” said Willie. “We’ll get you and Brad together in no time.”

Chelsea was able to smile a little. “Thanks everyone. I know I kinda messed it up at the party, but I appreciate all your help. I don’t know how I’m supposed to come back from this.”

Willie thought back to a time before he and Maria were dating. He wondered if he ever felt this nervous about talking to Maria. Probably not, he thought, but it had been a long time since then. Willie never had trouble expressing himself. The biggest obstacle he encountered was Maria’s quiet personality. Maria’s smart. Always thinking, but sometimes thinking so much that Willie had a hard time getting her to reply to him. Even today she was still quiet, but it was something Willie loved about her.

Now, Maria touched Chelsea on the shoulder as the girl folded her arms across her stomach. She was still recovering from her embarrassing moment at the pool party. Willie knew it would get better in time. Until then Chelsea still looked like she might be sick. Before she could totally cripple from embarrassment, once again a familiar voice called out.

“Chelsea!”

It was Brad.

Brad came over to the group of students in the hallway. He looked happy he found them.

“Chelsea, it's Brad from your pre-calculus class. We were at Jaime's party this weekend.”

Chelsea was almost too shocked to move. “Uh hi. Yeah. I remember.”

Brad continued, ignoring the other kids, “look, I was wondering if you could help me out. I’m not doing so great in pre-calculus, but I heard you’re like the smartest kid in class.”

Chelsea still seemed to be petrified. Timidly, she said, “oh, thanks.”

“Yeah, um. I was wondering if maybe you wanted to form a study group? We can work together to solve some problems and stuff. I mean, you’d be helping me more than I would be helping you, but I thought maybe that would be nice.”

Looking at the Lonely Lover Club members around her, Chelsea saw a series of nods and smiles.

Chelsea replied, still nervous, “sure, we can do that.”

“Great,” said Brad with a smile. “That would be awesome. I’ll talk to you in class and we can plan it out. Thanks Chelsea.”

Brad began walking away before Chelsea could say another word. The Lonely Lovers Club members all waited, silently. A moment ago the girl looked ill. Now, they all held their breaths, wondering if she might explode from a rollercoaster of emotions.

Chelsea turned to them with a huge smile. It was the biggest grin they had seen on her since they had first met.

“This is amazing!” said Chelsea. “Oh my goodness, can you believe it? He asked me out.”

The Lonely Lovers Club members were amused at first, but had to stop and think after hearing that statement. Sandra, the boldest of them, was able to make a comment.

“I don’t think that really counts as being asked out.”

“Oh no this is perfect,” said Chelsea. “Spending every day with Brad. After school in the library. It’s amazing. The smell of the old books. Solving math problems.”

The other kids looked at each other without a single word while Chelsea got lost in her daydream. For a bookworm like Chelsea, spending time in the library with her crush was probably a fantasy. She realized everyone was standing around and continued.

“Thank you so much. I couldn’t have done any of this without you guys. Oh I’m so grateful. This is the best day ever.”

“Right,” said Ginko. “Well, do you think we should plan out some conversations for your study group?”

“No don’t be silly,” said Chelsea, who was now surprisingly unafraid to speak with her crush. “We’ll be talking about math. This is perfect. I don’t need any help with math. This could not have gone any better.”

Just a few moments ago she was still wallowing in her embarrassment from the party. Now it was as if a whole new person was in front of them. To Willie, it was like watching a butterfly emerge from a cocoon.

“Congratulations,” Willie said. “This is truly magical.”

“Oh yes,” said Chelsea. “And I’ll let everyone know how great you were. This is fantastic. I should prepare. I need to study to make sure I can teach Brad. Thank you again.”

Fast as lightning, Chelsea practically skipped down the hallway. The Lonely Lovers Club took a collective, confused deep breath.

“Well that was just splendid wasn’t it?” asked Willie.

“What,” said Sandra. “You were starting to freak out just as much as she was.”

“What are you talking about,” said Willie. “I was not freaking out.”

“Were too,” said Sandra. “You got all quiet. You never shut up. And when you did talk it wasn’t all, that was splendid, like usual. You didn’t know what you were going to do next.”

“That’s preposterous,” said Willie. “I was confident the whole time. This went just the way we wanted it.”

“Oh please. Don’t act like you planned this whole thing.”

“Well of course not the whole thing. But there is no doubt our actions aided Chelsea in her time of need. We are the Lonely Lovers Club. We unite true loves. And today we did just that.”

“You didn’t do anything,” said Sandra.

“Alright, enough,” said Ginko. “We get it.”

Willie calmed down. He looked at Maria. She was as silent as ever. Willie was happy true love brought them together. And now he gets to repay the universe by bringing others together. Jaime and Rose. Now Chelsea and Brad. There were so many more people desperate for help.

Regardless of what Sandra said, Willie knew that today he helped grow a budding relationship. And he couldn't wait for the next one.